LB 237S 

9 I #"T» j 



THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAID 

4 



The Functions of 
a University. 




ADDRESS AT A SPECIAL CONGREGATION 
OF THE UNIVERSITY 



THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JAMES BRYCE, 

D.C.L., LL.D., O.M., British Ambassador Extraordinary 

and Plenipotentiary at Washington, U.S.A. 

July 19th, 1912. 



ADELAIDE : 

W. K. Thomas ft Co., Printers, Grenkelk Street. 

1912. 



L 



THE UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE. 



The Functions of 
a University. 




ADDRESS AT A SPECIAL CONGREGATION 
OF THE UNIVERSITY 



BY 



THE RIGHT HONOURABLE JAMES BRYCE, 

D.C.L,., L-L-.D., O.M., British Ambassador Extraordinary 

and Plenipotentiary at Washington, U.S.A. 

July 19th, 1912. 



ADELAIDE : 

W. K. Thomas & Co., Printers, Grenfell Street. 

1912. 



.2-1 



The University of Adelaide. 



Special Congregation in the 
Elder Hall, 

Friday, July igth, igi2. 



A Special Congregation of the University of Adelaide 
ivas held on Friday evening, July 19 1912, in the Elder 
Hall, for the purpose of conferring the degree of Doctor 
of Laws upon His Excellency the Right Honorable 
James Bryce, D.C.L., Oxon., and LL.D. Cantab., O.M., 
British Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary 
at Washington, U.S.A. The Chancellor (the Right 
Honorable Sir Samuel Way, Bart., D.C.L., LL.D.) pre- 
sided. Among those on the platform were the Vice- 
Chancellor (W. Barlow, Esq., LL.D.), the Warden of the 
Senate (F. Chappie, Esq., B.A., B.Sc), Professors Stirling, 
F.R.S., C.M.G.. M A., M.D., F.R.C.S., Rennie, M.A., D.Sc., 
Watson, M.D., F.R.C.S., Chapman, M.A., B.C.E., Mitchell, 
M.A., D.Sc, Henderson, M.A., Kerr Grant, M.Sc, Ennis, 
Mus. Doc, most of the lecturers of the University, nearly 
all the members of the Council, a large number of the 
members of the Senate, and the Registrar (Mr. C. R. 
Hodge). 

His Excellency the Governor (Admiral Sir Day Hort 
Bosanquet, R.N., G.C.V.O., K.C.B.), who was accom- 
panied by Mr. Bryce, was received by the Vice-Chancel- 
lor and conducted to the platform. The viceregal party 
included Lady Bosanquet, Mrs. Bryce, Lady Way, the 
Misses Bosanquet, and Captains Fletcher and Walker, of 
the Governor's staff. Professor Ennis, Mus. Doc, pre- 
sided at the organ, and played the National Anthem on 
the arrival of His Excellency the Governor. 

Degrees Conferred. 

The Dean of the Faculty of Arts (Professor Hender- 
son) recommended Absalom Deans for the ordinary 
degree of Bachelor of Arts (in absentia). Mr. Deans com- 
pleted his work for the degree while resident in Western 



Australia. The Dean also presented for the degree of 
Master of Arts, ad eundem gradum, the Eight Rev. Bishop 
Wilson, D.D., M.A. (Cantab.). 

The Chancellor, in admitting the Right Rev. Bishop 
Wilson to the degree, said: — Your Lordship, as Bishop 
of Melanesia for many years, was in succession 
to a number of Missionary Bishops, the two Bishops Sel- 
wyn and Bishop Patteson, whose names and careers are 
familiar to us all, and whose memories are held in loving 
reverence in South Australia. I am very glad indeed to 
welcome you as a member of the University, and es- 
pecially on this distinguished occasion. (Applause.) 

After admitting Mr. Deans to his degree the Chan- 
cellor said: — The Australian States possessing univer 
feities have exercised a sphere of influence in States which 
have not been so fortunate as to establish such institu- 
tions. The University of Sydney, for instance, has had 
in its sphere of influence Queensland, which, however, 
now possesses a university. Melbourne formerly had 
under its sphere of influence the State of Tasmania, which 
also has for some years had a university of its own. The 
University of Adelaide has been able to be of some ser- 
vice to Western Australia. That State is now to have a 
university which it is hoped will begin its work early next 
year. 

In the absence of the Dean of the Faculty of Laws 
(Professor Jethro Brown), the Vice-Chancellor recom- 
mended Edgar Robinson, also of Western Australia 
for the degree of Bachelor of Laws (in absentia). The 
degree was then conferred. 

The Dean of the Faculty of Science presented George 
Eric McDonnell Jauncey for the Honours Degree of 
Bachelor of Science, and stated that Mr. Jauncey took 
first class honours in physics. He secured the ordinary 
degree in 1911, was awarded a science research bursary 
by the Royal Commissioner of the Exhibition of 1851, and 
has been recommended for the research scholarship. Mr. 
Jauncey for some time held the position of Senior Demon- 
strator in Physics at the University. 

In admitting Mr. Jauncey to the Honours Degree of 
Bachelor of Science, the Chancellor said: — I congratu- 
late you very heartily 'on the distinction you have won. 
I am sure you will do credit to the University, as well as 
honour to yourself, in the researches you will make under 



the scholarship which will no doubt be granted to you by 
the Commissioners of the Great Exhibition of 1851. 
(Applause.) 

The Chancellor further remarked: — We expected to 
have the pleasure of admitting that distinguished orator 
and graduate of the University of London, the Bev. Prin- 
cipal Eevan, D.D., LL.B., as a member of this University, 
but unfortunately he is suffering from the prevailing 
epidemic and cannot attend. We hope to welcome him 
at some future time. His Excellency the Governor has 
not disappointed us. No meeting of the University 
would be complete without the honour and pleasure of 
His Excellency's presence. (Applause.) Sir Day 
Eosanquet is the Visitor of this University, but he has 
never had to exercise visitorial functions of a controver- 
sial character. He has kindly consented as our Visitor 
to perform a very pleasant duty this evening. (Ap- 
plause.) 

The Governor's Welcome. 

His Excellency the Governor said: — I heartily appre- 
ciate the honour which the Chancellor has conferred upon 
me by inviting me, as the Visitor to the University, to 
take part in receiving so distinguished a guest to-night. 
The first thought in the mind of those who have assembled 
here is the desire, with all our heart to welcome among 
us the Eight (Hon. James Bryce — (applause) — Member 
of the Privy Council, and of that most distinguished 
order — the Order of Merit — (applause) — who is visiting 
this State in the course of a tour throughout Australia 
undertaken for the purpose of studying the organizations 
and the working of the political and educational institu- 
tions of our land. The second thought that is in our 
minds may be described as a wish to offer him the full 
meed of honour to which his distinguished career and his 
great 'services to Britain and the Empire justly entitle 
him, and also to enable him not only to become familiar 
with our political and educational systems, but also so 
to enjoy himself during his visit to South Australia and 
so to see the country and meet its people, that he may on 
his departure carry away with him pleasant recollections 
of our oiti?ens, a happy memory of our pic- 
turesque scenery, a good impression of our garden city, 
and a clear conception of our several industrial under- 
takings and commercial enterprises. (Applause.) We 
are proud to receive him here in the halls of the Univer- 



sity, not only because of his high position as British Am- 
bassador to the United States, but because of his world- 
wide fame as a statesman, his high reputation as a philo 
sopher and scholar, and his great career as a politician, 
but also because he has achieved all these distinctions 
solely by his own personal ability and force of character. 
There is a great variety of subjects upon which 
we are anxious to listen to the views of our distinguished 
guest, but to night the professors and students reign su- 
preme. We had fondly hoped that Mr. Bryce would have 
remained with us for a longer time, and that he 
would have given us the benefit of his illuminating pro- 
nouncements upon every one of those problems which are 
confronting politicians and statesmen of South Australia, 
but, unfortunately, he is obliged to leave us to-morrow 
afternoon to our great regret. I can only advise you 
young men to read the luminous speeches which he has 
delivered daring his visit to the Commonwealth, and to 
search for articles which have appeared in the "Round 
Table'' Magazine. (Applause.) 

Conferring the Degree upon Mr. Bryce. 

The Vice-Chancellor, (Dr. Barlow) addressing the 
Chancellor, said: — I present to you, His Excellency the 
Right Hon. James Bryce, who has been admitted to the 
degree of Doctor of Laws in the University of Cambridge, 
as a fit and proper person to be admitted to the rank and 
privileges of that degree in the University of Adelaide. 

The Chancellor — By virtue of the authority com- 
mitted to me I admit your Excellency the Right Hon. 
James Bryce, British Ambassador and Plenipotentiary 
at Washington, to the rank and privileges of a Doctor of 
Laws in the University of Adelaide. 

The audience stood and heartily applauded whilst 
the degree was being conferred. 

The Chancellor's Address. 

The Chancellor said:— Your Excellency, Mr. Bryce, 
Members of the Senate of the University, ladies and gen- 
tlemen, I can say of the University of Adelaide what you, 
Mr. Bryce, cannot say of the University of Oxford. _ 1 
have been connected 'with this University ever since its 



foundation. (Laughter and applause.) Naturally, as 
I am no longer young, I am inclined to be reminiscent on 
an occasion like the present. I cannot forget that thirty- 
seven years ago I had the honour of conferring the first 
degree granted in the University of Adelaide. It waif 
upon the then Chancellor, the Right Rev. Augustus 
Short, Lord Bishop of Adelaide — scholar, missionary 
bishop, and ecclesiastical statesman. Like the junior 
member of this University Chancellor Short was an 
Oxford Don. The most distinguished of the students who 
attended his terminal lectures and read Thucydides with 
him was the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone — (applause) — 
one of the greatest figures, perhaps the very greatest man 
of the nineteenth century. (Applause.) When con- 
ferring the degree upon our then Chancellor, the Bishop, 
I referred to him and to his illustrious pupil as examples 
of the advantage of university training and university 
culture. Those two great men have passed away, but 
we have the inspiration of their example. And happily, 
we still have an equally illustrious living example of the 
benefit of university training in the person and in the 
career of the distinguished accession to our ranks which 
we have had this evening. (Applause.) Familiar as 
you all must be with His Excellency's history as univer- 
sity professor, as political philosopher, as man of letters, 
as statesman, and as diplomatist, it is unnecessary for 
me to dwell ipon the incidents of his great career. But 
in the addresses to which His Excellency the Governor 
has referred, the addresses on political, on sociological, 
on historical, and on academical subjects which Mr. 
Bryce has delivered since his arrival in Australia day by 
day, sometimes several times a day, we have had displays 
of his varied acquirements. I venture to call him the 
"Admirable Crichton" of the nineteenth and twentieth 
centuries. (Applause.) I had the privilege of accom- 
panying His Excellency on an expedition around Mount 
Lofty yesterday afternoon, and Mr. Howchin, the distin- 
guished lecturer on geology in this University, unfolded 
to him his discoveries as to the glacial epoch which Pro- 
fessor Pavid, of Sydney — one of the most eminent of liv- 
ing geologists — says are amongst the greatest discoveries 
in the geology of Australia. On that occasion His 
Excellency's knowledge of the subject upon which 
Mr. Howchin dwelt was a happy incident which Mr. 
Howchin will always remember, for he never had a more 
appreciative or better listener to the admirable lecture 



8 

he delivered during that journey. This afternoon 
I had the honour of showing His Excellency our Botanic 
Gardens, and I then discovered that, like an ancient sage 
whose name is familiar to you all, His Excellency knows 
every plant, from the hyssop on the wall to the cedar of 
Lebanon and the Australian gum. (Laughter and ap- 
plause.) We cannot hope, your Excellency, that for 
many years, perhaps centuries, to come, any student of 
the L'niversity of Adelaide will rival your achievement 
of producing, whilst still a student at your Alma Mater, 
what is recognized as a permanent classic which 
will be valued for all time — the history of the Holy So- 
man Empire. (Applause.) But there is a class of work 
upon which already the University of Adelaide has 
teachers and students who may range themselves along- 
side our illustrious visitor. I cannot say how often 
since the time of Noah the ascent of Mount Ararat has 
been made, but we all know that the Archimandrite of 
that region did not believe that Mr. Bryce accomplished 
that remarkable feat. But notwithstanding that, the 
whole scientific world knows it, and I believe His Excel- 
lency is as proud of what he accomplished then as of any- 
thing he ha* done in the world. But nobody will deny that 
Dr. Douglas Mawson (lecturer and doctor of science cf 
this University) is one of the only four men who have 
ever stood round the antarctic magnetic pole. He is also 
one of the four men who, in the whole history of the word, 
have ascended Mount Erebus, and have gazed into the 
depths of its crater. (Applause.) May I add that, in 
their ardour for the advancement of science, there are now 
living under the snows of Antarctica with Dr. Mawson 
as their leader, thirty young Australian scientists, seve- 
ral of them graduates of the University of Adelaide, one 
of whom has torn himself away from the privilege of a 
Rhodes scholar of continuing his studies at Oxford. (Ap- 
plause.) Those are examples which I venture, on behalf 
of this University, and of the other Australian universi- 
ties, to place against that great climbing achievement of 
your Excellency's. (Applause.) On this occasion we 
are all sensible of the honour which your Excellency has 
done us in becoming a member of the University of Ade- 
laide. It may not seem much to your Excellency, but it 
means a great deal to us. Your acceptance of the degree 
which has been conferred this evening is a permanent 
distinction to this University, and has laid us under a 
perpetual obligation. (Applause.) 



MR. BRYCE'S ADDRESS. 

His Excellency Che Right Hon. J. Bryee said:— My 
- 5t 1 ity is to express to yon my heartfelt thanks for the 
great and unexpected honour which yon have jnst con- 
ferred upon me. Nothing was further from my thoughts 
when I came to Australia than that I should be received 
with such open arm- by it- universities, and that this — the 
crowning honour which is the highest the University of 
Adelaide has the power to bestc w — should fall to my lot. 
I assure you I have ne~rr received an academic honour 
which I prize more or will continue to be more _: aiefol 
I i ~han the present one. One thing your action to- 
night has lone it has made me an Australian. Ap- 
plause.) You ha~r ^i"rn me a new rle t: yom great 
continent and Commonwealth, besides that which I have 
and value as being a member of the British Empire, which 
T*e all honour and revere, and which we hope will last as 
long as human vision can reach into the future. Ap- 
plause). You have gone m far in making me an Austra- 
lian as to tempt me t [ rolong 1 eyond what the calls rf 
will permit, my sojourn in Australia, and to take 
the privilege that an Australian is allowed, to offer my 
opinion, whether asked or unasked, upon some of the 

i and economical problems with which you are en- 
gaged. iLaughter. You have done me far too much 
honour. The truth is for the first time, pretty nearly in 
my life I have come to be glad that I am not in the first 
blush of youth, because if I had been I am afraid that my 
head would not have been able to stand the unmerited 
eulogies which you have bestowed upon me. Fortunately 
life has shown me many of my deficiencies and taught me 

-count, as the outcome of friendliness, all that has 
fallen from His Excellency and the Chancellor. [No.) 
My scepticism, however, does not lessen my gratitude. 
• Hear, hear.' Even if a man does no: deserve what is- 
said about him it is very pleasant to hear it said. 

As a member of your University I may TA nt Tire to 
express to you th^ great pride which I feel in being one of 
its members, and I congratulate you upon the fact 
that 7 >ui lines have fallen in pleasant r. It is true 



10 

you are young compared with the University of Oxford. 
The Chancellor was pleased to observe that he could 
claim to have been connected with this University since 
its inauguration, while I could not claim that I was pre- 
sent at the foundation of the University of Oxford. 
Neither could any one else. I do not know when Oxford 
was started, and no one who ever lived does know. It 
was not founded, but it grew up. It is what is called a 
University at Common Law. It is a University which 
does not exist by any Papal Bull, Royal Charter, or Sta- 
tute of Parliament, but it exists as part of the Common 
Law of England, and there never was a time, "within legal 
memory." in which any one could say there was no Univer- 
sity of Oxford. Oxford has a long history in the past; 
you are going to have a long history in the future; and 
you have the privilege of making those traditions which 
modern Oxford has had made for it. Our responsi- 
bility is to tread in the steps of our ancestors and 
to tread it worthily of them, but your responsibility — 
not less serious — is to set precedents and form traditions 
for posterity, which will be a guide and an inspiration 
for those who will come after you for many centuries. 

Educational Advantages. 

I congratulate you upon some great advantages 
which you possess here. You have a beautiful site in a 
beautiful city. Adelaide deserves all and more than all 
that travellers have said of its beauty and charms. It 
stands on a rich, fertile plain like my beloved Oxford Uni- 
versity. Oxford, however, does not possess the charm 
of a mountain range running almost around it, and hold- 
ing within its recesses beautiful varied and wonderful 
scenery. What a privilege for you to have the oppor- 
tunity so close at hand to commune with Nature in its in- 
most secrets! What delight it must be to be 
able to view from the summit its most exquisite lights 
and colours stretching down to the blue expanse of ocean 
in the distance! You are, indeed, to be envied in your 
surroundings. You are on the edge of the city, a site 
which is of great advantage. It is near enough to be 
available for all who dwell in the city and desire to at- 
tend lectures. It is 'near enough for those who desire 
to study in your schools, and convenient for those who, 
being employed during the day, wish to attend the even- 
ing classes. It has also ample space behind where build- 



11 

ings in the future will rise up, and where you have also 
large recreation grounds sufficient at present for your 
purposes. If I may utter a word of counsel to you and 
your benevolent friends, the Government of the State of 
South Australia, and fthe municipal authorities of the 
City of Adelaide, it is this — Do not suffer any of the 
ground which may be needed for the University in ihe 
future to fall into private ownership. (Applause.) You 
will want all the ground you have, and probably more. 
No man can foresee the limits of the growth of this Uni- 
versity. Besides all the buildings you require for teach- 
ing, there will need to be room for galleries, laboratories, 
museums, and libraries. Moreover, in the time to come, 
liberal bequests of benefactors like those who have as- 
sisted the colleges at Oxford and Cambridge will found 
residential colleges for those who come from a distance. 
I hope you will bear in mind how much the munificence 
of the wealthy men in South Australia in the future may 
do for you in the way of promoting learning in the State. 
(Applause.) 

It is of great interest to any one who has passed the 
best part of his life in connection with universities to see 
this new university in this new land. A university ex- 
presses the mind and thought and aspiration of the 
people among whom it stands, and a university has for 
people a great promise for the future. It is both a 
result and a cause. It is a result as it is the expression 
of the people's mind and character. It shows the ad- 
vancement which the community has made, the objects 
upon which the hearts of its people are set, and the 
thoughts with which its people's minds are filled. It is 
a cause in that it is a powerful motive force and guide in 
the community, and gives back to the community more 
than it receives from them. 

Three Types op University. 

Each nation of the world which has produced a great 
university has developed one of a different type. By 
saying this I open up a great subject, upon which I can- 
not dwell for long Ito-night. I will, however, call your 
attention to three existing types of universities which 
have been produced by three great peoples. I choose 
these three in particular because each is distinctive of the 



12 

character of the people it represents, and of their respec- 
tive social and economic conditions. They are the Ger- 
man, American, and English universities. 

German Organization. 

German universities are peculiar mainly for the per- 
fection of their organization for the study of all branches 
of human enquiry, and for the way in which they have 
devoted themselves to the prosecution of original 
research. In these three lines the universities of Germany 
have set us an example which has been a service to the 
whole world. That is only one of their services. In a 
great epoch at the beginning of last century, when Ger- 
many lay for a while prostrate under the heel of a foreign 
tyrannical conqueror, the Universities became the homes 
of German patriotism. They rendered great service in 
cultivating patriotism and devotion to a high national 
ideal, and to the world they have rendered great service 
by what they have done in the fields of scientific dis- 
covery and learning in almost every branch. That repre- 
sents one type — a valuable type — but a type, I think, 
which is not quite perfect, because it lacks something 
eise which I propose to try and indicate. 

American Ideals. 

Of the second type are the universities of the United 
States. (They have not done so much for learning as the 
German universities. Although they command enor- 
mous sums of money and enormous staffs of professors 
they are not organized with such scientific symmetry and 
precision as the universities of Germany. They have not 
reached, taking them as a whole, so high a level or done 
so much for scientific research as the German institutions. 
But they have succeeded in becoming an object of national 
pride and interest to such an extent as to draw from those 
millionaires, who are as plentiful as blackberries in the 
United iStates, constant fertilizing streams of gold, so 
that the endowments received by the American universi- 
ties in a single year are more than the universities of Ox- 
ford and Cambridge possess in capital. It is some- 
thing to have succeeded in making yourself the proper 
recipient of benefaction. (Laughter.) It is a success 
which, I think, will he very often envied. We in England 



13 

envy it. But no doubt when Australia begins to ap- 
proach to the wealth of the United States you will provide 
no less. The universities in the United States are, more- 
over, thoroughly popular, and are accessible to every one. 
They are just as open to the son of the mechanic, 
nay, even to the child of the Italian or Polish 
immigrant, as they are to the sons of merchant 
princes of New York and Boston. They serve all 
classes of people. I do not think there could be a 
higher ideal. The universities of the United States 
have succeeded in doing a thing which I do not know that 
any other universities yet have completely accom- 
plished — they have made a university education a neces- 
sary part of the equipment of every man who can afford 
it. Now in England and Scotland a university educa- 
tion has been considered, if not a luxury, at any rate a 
thing reserved either for those who have abundant 
means and need not enter into any active walk of life, 
or else for those who have to enter one of the learned 
professions, such as law, divinity, medicine, or education. 
But in America they train people for business. There 
was nothing which struck me so much as to find how 
large a proportion of their students were men who were 
going to enter into commercial or industrial pursuits — 
sometimes the sons of men of moderate means, some- 
times the sons of wealthy men, but of wealthy men who 
'were, probably, themselves university graduates, and 
who, therefore, desired that their sons should have that 
thorough training of the mind which the university is in- 
tended to give. (Hear, hear.) 

The English Type. 

Now, let me pass to my own country. It is your 
country as well as mine, because everybody in the Em- 
pire has three patriotisms. He has the patriotism of his 
own Dominion or country; he has the patriotism of the 
Empire; and, I think, above all, he has the patriotism of 
that old country where his ancestors were born, lived, and 
died, and are buried, and which has done so much for all 
of us, whether we are Australians, Canadians, or Britons. 
(Hear, hear.) Our English universities have not of late 
years contributed quite so much to research as the uni- 
Tersities of Germany have done, although I will not ad- 
mit that they are one whit inferior. I remember that 
among all the great discoveries of modern science a larger 



14 

ahare is due to English and Scottish discoverers than to 
those of any other country. If you measure discoveries 
not merely by their number but by their magnitude, there 
are no discoveries, from the days of Newton and Bacon, 
which have contributed more to the advancement of 
science than those that are due to the men of England 
and Scotland. Our universities are not yet so popular— al- 
though they are beginning to be, more so than they were— 
as the universities of the United States. But I will 
claim for our universities that they have always set them- 
selves a verv noble ideal, an ideal of giving, not so much 
a preparation for active life in its different branches, as 
that general education which fits a man to be a worthy 
member of the Church and the Commonwealth. They 
have always set themselves to develop men as men, to 
build up and polish a completely harmonious and 
rounded man in whom all faculties have been cultivated 
and brought to a symmetrical perfection. Along with 
this there has been," also, the feeling that when we speak 
of trying to bring a man to the highest perfection of his 
powers, we are thinking not only of the powers of learn- 
ing but also of his powers as a man of action. Oxford and 
Cambridge have not only tried to produce a man of learn- 
ing and knowledge, or a scientific discoverer, but also a 
practical man, it may be an engineer, a preacher, a physi- 
cian, a teacher, a lawyer, or a man of public affairs. The 
universities of England have never been dissevered from 
public life, and among the public men who have won dis- 
tinction in our country there have been an unusually large 
number who would own, and did gratefully own, what 
their university education did for them. Those have been 
the characteristic marks of our English universities, 
and with them there has gone something which is 
harder to describe in words, an impalpable something 
which you can best call an intellectual and social atmos- 
phere. That is partly due to our conception of what a 
liberal education should be, and partly to the social life of 
the universities, and it has two results. One is the inti- 
mate relationship into which it has brought the students. 
They all have their sports together. They all dine in the 
same college hall, and they all worship in the same 
college chapel. Thus they are brought into an in- 
timate relationship with one another, and I think most 
of us who know Oxford or Cambridge will say that we 



15 

have learnt quite as much from our fellow-students as we 
hare learnt from the college teachers and university 
professors. With that there is another advantage. The 
college life has not only been that of undergraduates 
living as friends together, but it has also brought about a 
close connection and intercourse between the younger 
teachers and undergraduates. That is almost peculiar 
to the universities of England. It does not exist in the 
universities of Scotland or Germany, but in Oxford and 
Cambridge the students are the friends of their teachers ; 
they live almost on an equality, an equality which is tem- 
pered only by the respect they feel for greater age and ex- 
perience. 

These are advantages which it would be impossible to 
have in full measure without the conditions of college life 
as well as university life, and that is one reason why I 
hope that in Australia you will endeavour to develop 
every kind of brotherhood and fraternity which will bring 
the students together. Some day I hope you will have 
residential colleges. In the meantime anything that 
brings the students together, and all the better if it also 
brings the professors, and especially the junior professors, 
and the students together, helps to reproduce those con- 
ditions which have enriched the life of Oxford and Cam- 
bridge. (Applause.) 

May I ask the younger members of this audience not 
to forget that in their undergraduate years they are 
enjoying an unrivalled opportunity for making friend- 
ships? There was nothing in England that made us re- 
joice more than that you had opened your University to 
women. The new Universities of Manchester, Liverpool, 
Leeds, and Sheffield have done the same, and so has Scot- 
land also, and this gives the women students the same op- 
portunity for making congenial friendships as men stu- 
dents enjoy. There is no stronger argument in favour of 
admitting them to universities than this. (Applause.) 
Ladies of the University, I congratulate you upon living 
in an age when the claims of women to university educa- 
tion have been amply recognized. It is the greatest 
pleasure for me to know that you also have recognized 
what the universities have done by your attendance at 
them in such large numbers and with such admirable re- 
sults. (Hear, hear.) 



16 



Australian Conditions. 



Taking these to be the characteristic merits of the 
three university types, how are you situated in 
Australia for a combination of those types? Aus- 
tralia is in one respect at a disadvantage. It 
is a continent in a remote ocean, far away from 
Europe and America and the ancient seats of learning, 
with their appliances for instruction. Australia has to 
make those for itself, but that disadvantage is one 
which will diminish. Although at present there may be 
a sufficient number of universities in the Australian capi- 
tal cities there is no reason why other universities should 
not follow as the population increases. You have in Aus- 
tralia two great advantages already. Your universities 
are popular, and they are accessible to every class of the 
community. They enjoy also the confidence of the people 
and the confidence of the various State Governments 
each of which has shown itself sensible of the good the 
universities are doing. 

Australians are, moreover, the heirs of a noble tra- 
dition of Great Britain — the tradition that the function 
of a university is not only to discover and to teach, but to 
form the characters of men. (Applause.) There is, I 
think, a tendency at present to decry the study of the 
ancient classics. I venture to believe that nothing is more 
necessary than that a fair proportion of the people of to- 
day should cherish and be familiar with the masterpieces 
of ancient litera:ure. (Hear, hear.) Every day we are 
moving further and further from the man of the early 
simple days, man as he was before he had passed through 
all that series of changes which has made him the com- 
plicated being he is to-day. The value of the ancient clas- 
sics is at least as great as it has ever been, and, indeed, 
we cannot really know and comprehend the modern 
world unless we have some idea of the ancient 
world. Who, for instance, can understand the historical 
aspects of Christianity unless he knows something about 
the world Christianity was born in — the world that Christ 
appeared in, and that in which St. Paul preached? Who 
can understand, also, how Christian teaching affected 
men's minds, and how, also, it came to be misunderstood 
and persecuted, if he has no knowledge of the time of 
Augustus and Tiberius, of the condition of the Empire 
when Pontius Pilate was Procurator in Judaea? Who 



17 

can understand the democracy of modern times who does 
not know something of the democracy of ancient times — ■ 
of those forms of popular government in Greece and Italy 
which died out under Koman sway and reappeared later 
among the recesses of the Alps, and within the shores of 
England. As Wordsworth has put it in his majestic 
lines : — 

Two voices are there ; one is of the sea, 
One of the mountains ; each a glorious voice. 

Who can understand the political problems which modern 
democracy has to face who does not know something of 
how popular government first came into being, and how 
ancient conditions are nowadays varied, or even, in 
some points, reproduced? T beg you not to think 
that you are wasting any of your time when you are 
giving part of it to the acquisition of a knowledge of the 
ancient world. You will have a far better insight into 
the problems of to-day if you know 7 what the ancient World 
was like. (Applause.) 

The Love of Truth. 

Besides the duty of teaching and the duty of research 
the University has another great aim and object, that is, 
to hold up to its students and the whole community a 
noble ideal of life. It has, by its presence and teaching, 
by the lives of its teachers, and by those who have gone 
forth from it bearing with them some of its spirit, to 
stand before the world as cherishing and revering a 
higher ideal of life than can be expressed in terms of 
material prosperity and material success. It has to teach 
men to appreciate those pleasures of intellect and taste 
which are far above the pleasures of mere amusement. 
Every one who has tried to study what Milton calls 
"divine' 7 philosophy — 

Not harsh and crabbed, as dull fools suppose, 
Hnt musical, as is Apollo's lute — 

knows that the pleasures learning and philosophy afford 
are the highest pleasures that are open to man. 
As it is said in the Gospel, "Man does not live 
by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth 
out of the mouth of God," so a State does not live bv 



18 

material success alone, nor by all the wealth of the fertile 
soil and flocks and herds scattered over ten thousand hills, 
but by the character and intellect of its people. And the 
highest function of a university is to hold up the ideal of 
a high and pure and noble life, and to teach its pupils, as 
the greatest of all lessons, the Love of Truth. (Applause.) 

Universities exist for the sake of truth, and if a uni- 
versity now being newly founded were to seek a motto 
which would express one of its most exalted functions, 
could it find a better one than this, "Ye shall know 
the truth and the truth shall make you free?" Truth 
and the love of truth are the things which make us free. 
They raise us above prejudices and partizanships and all 
those things which bring us down to earth and make us 
creatures of circumstances. Truth and the love of truth 
help to make us eternal, and the university that teaches 
its students to love knowledge and love truth does the 
highest thing and the best thing that any university can 
do for its students, and for the nation which it serves. 
(Loud applause.) 

Ladies and gentlemen, let me again thank you for 
the honour you have done me, and through you let me 
thank all those in Adelaide who have given so friendly a 
reception to my wife and myself. Your kindness and 
cordiality we can never forget. I wish for this Univer- 
sity a career so prosperous, great, and useful to the people 
of this State, that when many centuries have passed, and 
the State and the University have become infinitely lar- 
ger than they are now, men will look back to these early 
days and lift up their voices and thank those who had 
the wisdom to found the University, and make it, as we 
trust it will be, a source of strength and blessing to the 
people. (Loud and continued applause.) 

Professor Henderson, in thanking Mr. Bryce for his 
address, said: — His Excellency's speech is that of a man 
with a fine artistic sense of arrangement, and of a man 
who speaks with that impressive eloquence which comes 
of a profound belief in the truth of what he is saying. 
(Applause.) I do not believe there is a single man or 
woman in the audience who does not feel that he or she 
has been lifted to the mountain tops and for the past forty 
minutes has breathed a most bracing atmosphere. Mr. 
Bryce has helped and inspired us. We have given him 



19 

a degree — the best we have — but we have done it know- 
ing that in doing honour to him we have done great 
honour to ourselves. (Applause.) 

The proceedings terminated with the National An- 
them. 



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W.K.THOMAS &. C2. PRINTERS. ALELAIuE. 



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